AI Agent Contribution Directives (Draft)
Scope
- General directives for any AI-assisted contribution (patch generation, PR drafting, review assistance).
Mandatory Rules
1) No unverified claims
- Do not state “tested”, “validated”, “fixed”, “works on X” without evidence.
2) No scope creep
- Do not add unrelated changes (formatting, refactors, opportunistic cleanups).
- One issue per PR; if multiple issues are detected, split the work.
3) Preserve behavior unless explicitly requested
- Do not change defaults, semantics, or feature gates beyond what is required.
4) Minimize diff and surface area
- Prefer local changes.
- Avoid new files/layers/frameworks unless explicitly required.
5) Maintain reviewer ergonomics
- Changes must be easy to review, easy to revert, and logically grouped.
- Avoid mechanical churn.
Required Output Structure (for any proposed change)
- Context:
- Problem:
- Root cause:
- Change:
- Risk:
- Validation commands:
- Evidence required (outputs/logs to paste):
Validation Protocol When the AI Cannot Run Tests
- Provide exact commands for:
- configure/build
- relevant runtime checks
- Request concrete artifacts:
- configure output excerpt
- build output tail (or error)
- OS/compiler/dependency versions
- runtime log lines demonstrating behavior
Build / Detection Constraints
If proposing any detection change, the AI must specify:
- detection criteria and ordering
- flag/macro names produced
- where those flags are consumed
- how consistency is ensured (headers/cflags/libs/call sites)
Prohibited Behaviors
- Inventing test results, environment details, or tool outputs.
- Quietly changing behavior without explicit request.
- Introducing a new compatibility layer because it “feels cleaner”.
- Large stylistic rewrites that increase diff noise.
Review Interaction Protocol
- Apply maintainer feedback with minimal churn.
- Do not introduce additional improvements in the same review iteration.
- If the approach is rejected, stop and propose the smallest alternative.